


crumple

by dytabytes



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Father-Son Relationship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-03
Updated: 2013-09-03
Packaged: 2017-12-25 13:40:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 475
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/953755
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dytabytes/pseuds/dytabytes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>Charlie cried himself to sleep what feels like hours ago and Herc wishes that he could do the same.</i>  Herc Hansen, the night after Scissure.</p>
            </blockquote>





	crumple

Charlie cried himself to sleep what feels like hours ago and Herc wishes that he could do the same. He's too wired to sleep, though, curled around his son in a shitty motel bed. At least it's not the back of his Jeep, he thinks, because even after the helicoptor fucked out on them, there were places to flee to if you were willing to drive far enough. He'd have kept on driving if it were just him, out into the desert and into the night and maybe into nowhere if he could have, but. He'd got Charlie out. That was the important part, even if he couldn't get Angie on her cell, and even if Scott wasn't answering his goddamn phone either. He'd got Charlie.

They hadn't talked much after Herc had dragged his boy out of the rubble and into the car and started slogging his way out of the city. Maybe he'd been too harsh with him, hushing him every time he tried to talk, but he'd had to pay attention to the emergency radio, and he really wasn't ready to talk about... Anything. Maybe he'd never be. That'd been Angie's strong suit, god bless her, not his.

_Is_ Angie's strong suit, he corrects himself, because what the hell kind of person is he, already assuming that everyone he loves is dead?

Charlie stirs in his sleep, and Herc realizes that he's clutching too hard at him. He forces himself to loosen his grip, brushes a kiss across his son's crown. "Shh, 's alright. You're safe." And hell if he knows if he's saying that for his boy or for himself right now. 

But he's got to be strong, got to keep himself together long enough to get the both of them back to base and back with Angie, so he's got to figure out where to go from here. He figures it'll take another day to get out to base, what with the heavy traffic from people fleeing Sydney and the surrounding coastline. After that, he's going to have to figure out where to keep Charlie, how to keep the two of them fed and clothed and housed, how to keep going if Angie hasn't... No, he can't think about that right now.

He wipes at his eyes, blinking away the tears that fear and heartache are drawing out. Wouldn't do to wake Charlie up. He needs his sleep, after a day like this.

Herc huffs wryly as he realizes that his own eyes are getting heavy. He probably needs his own sleep too, come to think of it. He closes his eyes, tucks his nose into Charlie's hair, trying to nod off. Thinking about hard things like life and death and survival can wait for tomorrow when he's got a clear head. For now... for now, he has to rest.


End file.
